Ich help

[dannyboy]

I have a 56G tank and used cycled water from a 29G i had running for 6-8 months with no probs and all the live rock from same tank. When 56 cycle was complete I added a few more pieces of rock and every fish I've tried to add has gotten sick, (few white spots on fins first, then covering entire body till death.) The first fish in the tank came from the 29G so It started off healthy. I guess my question is, do you have any recommendations of a ich treatment that wont hurt the live rock and what else can I do to speed up the elimination of it befor I try to add a new fish. Thanks.

 

[cthegame]

I would not treat ich in your main tank with any kind of medication. If you're certain that if you dont do something ich will keep coming back, i would setup a quarantine tank and treal ALL the fish in there for at least 6 weeks. The fish dont require that much time but Ich's life cycle needs to pass before it is gone from your tank and that usually takes a minimum of 6 weeks.

You can treat fish with copper in the QT. Make sure you dont put any kind of medication in your main tank as that will kill all your inverts and make your live rock & sand useless.

 

[dannyboy]

Ya, I've up my 29 as a hospital tank so the 56 is only left with the cleaner crew, how does ich effect them? I found so much info on ich it all started getting confusing. Should I lower the salinity to the lower end or that not really gonna help? What about temperature? Any other ideas to speed up the 6 weeks I'm all ears. Thanks again

 

[Bifferwine]

If there are no fish in your tank right now, leave it fish-less for 2 months. Ich is a parasite that cannot survive without a fish host. Ich will not be carried on your cleaner crew, rocks or sand. No fish in your tank = ich dies.

There is no effective ich treatment that is safe for your inverts. So you cannot effectively treat fish in your display tank. If you do use copper, it will contaminate all your rocks and sand, and the rocks and sand will slowly leach out copper in the future, killing any inverts you try to add afterwards. Likewise, hyposalinity treatments are fatal to inverts too.

Your best bet is to leave your tank empty, and quarantine any fish before you add them in the future.

 

[dannyboy]

OK, thanks a bunch. 1 more question, the guy at the lfs said a UV steralizer would help? Somethin I should look into or not needed. I really know nothing about them. Thanks again.

 

[dustin_P74]

a uv would help because it kills everything bad that pass through it but its down side is that it kills all the good things in the water too. as long as you keep your parameters stable and your tank stress free you wont have disease out breaks and a uv wont be needed

 

[Bifferwine]

A UV sterilizer would help, but there are pros and cons to using UV. UV sterilizers also kill all the good bacteria that helps to keep your water quality good. It kills the planktonic animals that your corals and fish use as food. You can try UV if you keep having this problem. It may be more beneficial to get to the root of the problem though. Usually a stressor brings out ich, and if you eliminate the stressor, the fish doesn't break out with ich. Try and figure out what is stressing your fish so much.

 

[cthegame]

+1 Biff & Dustin on UV

 

[yote]

+2 for em.

 

[messiah023]

Just my 2 cents......

I had an ich breakout earlier in 2008.
I had 5 fish in the tank and 4 had the parasite showing.

I used this stuff.

Never heard anything about it other than from my buddy at the LFS.
I was skeptical to say the least (especially treating my full reef tank).

I used it for (2) weeks in the DT (skimmer off).
Followed the directions to a Tee.

All but one fish survived.....my yellow clown gobie.
I still have these fish today and never had a breakout since (about 8 months).

Just an option to explore.....anyone else use this stuff?


EDIT: How can you not trust a product like this from him?

 

[dustin_P74]

i like how he says "you dont only buy my product but you buy me" and then later on he says you can call me collect. then he changes hes story from my product to our products

 

[Bifferwine]

Nerd alert!

 

[Oscarsdad608]

He has a nice little mulute too. That man is hot.

 

[Smitty]

in reference to temp, you can try raising it a bit gradually, which will help to speed up the elimination...to about 82 degrees